During the final year of my Master’s, from 2022 – 2023, I chose to become the graduate advisor of SUNY ESF’s student chapter of The Wildlife Society (TWS). Previously I had served as president of the same club at my alma mater, so this was a nice change to experience a new position of leadership. As an advisor, my duties entailed the following:
1) Attending officer and club (general body) meetings, which alternated every other week. During officer meetings, I advised undergraduate officers on leading the club, including planning & scheduling club events, fundraising, booking travel, coordinating activities, completing TWS paperwork, amending bylaws, and other tasks.
2) Coordinating guest speakers for the club or finding opportunities for their members to gain wildlife experience. As a graduate student, I had many connections to other graduate students and faculty, and served as a liaison in that regard.
3) Filling in where needed on a case-by-case basis. For example, I once gave a 45-minute presentation to the club on professional networking, i.e. its importance and how to do it.
4) Helping officers navigate any disputes that arose within their team by serving as a third-party mediator, including communicating with the faculty advisor and deferring issues when necessary.
This was a very rewarding position and a great group of students with which to collaborate. I was very proud of how well the undergraduate officer team pulled together and coordinated several well-attended and popular events for their members, often in conjunction with other groups or clubs. Among many others, events included a trip to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a professional department “mixer” where students established connections with various agencies, organizations, and professionals, and a movie screening and ensuing panel discussion about an initiative to restore grazing ecosystems in the Arctic, which even the film director attended.